White officials in Queen Anne's County challenge the recruitment of free people of color as temporary slaves
William T. Chamgbers to Col. William Birney reporting arrest of Col. J.P. Creager for recruiting among free people of color on the grounds that "when a free colored man hires himself for a year, or short period of time, he is a slave for the length of time he hires himself, and that I have no right to recruit him, though it may be his desire to volunteer." Notes that John Singer, a free person of color, was arrested for enlisting and thus violating his contract "without reasonable and proper cause."